Matches from ICW-NHB Detroit 10/1

Deathmatch Circus 

Justin Kyle vs. Tank

PAS: The Kyle matches work best as violent sprints, and this had some big violent moments. At one point Kyle unloads with five big forearms to the side of the head which looked like it might pop Tank's head off, and there were some big shots with table pieces too. I think this went a bit long though and by the end got sluggish, with both guys looking a bit gassed. Finish was cool with Tank spearing Kyle through a door only to get caught in a choke, but I would have liked it more after 5 hot minutes instead of 14 warm ones.

Sadika vs. Mickie Knuckles

PAS: A battle of party aunts from different cultures, and the biggest match of Mickie's 2021 comeback run. Mickie comes out early and dominates, including crossfacing a bunch of lighttubes into Sadika's face. They brawl into the crowd, which was my favorite part of the match, Mickie is really great at that kind of reckless Coliseo Coacalco style dirt floor fighting, and Sadika is a veteran of the indy lucha wars. I really love how Mickie sells these glass shots, she has a great silent movie shocked face. Sadika has really gotten great at coming across dangerous. The ref stoppage finish is tricky in a promotion with this many insane bumps, but Sadika really does come off like she is going to go dig a hole in the woods. I liked this a lot, but feel like the rematch is really going to blow the doors off, with Mickie coming back at it.

The Pit 4 

Justin Kyle vs. Isaiah Broner

PAS: Big fan of these Kyle fist fights and Broner is a great opponent for him. Kyle clears the pit of chairs and doors to show this is going to be all knuckles. Broner has really nice body shots, and it seemed pretty clear that he was basically just digging in the ribs as hard as he could, also landing a right on the temple which splits open Kyle. Kyle hit a hard looking spin kick which looked even cooler with all of the dirt flying off his boot. Finish was a big jumping knee to the temple that slumped Broner. Really fun stuff, and Kyle in his element is one of the most fun guys in the world to watch.

Hoodfoot vs. Tank

PAS: I thought this was a little heavy on the exchanging punches, and not enough actual fighting. I also find stuff like gusset plates more gross than engaging. There were some moments I really liked, though: Hoodfoot took a big bump into the guardrail which looked great, and the finish with Tank stomping a steel chair right on Hoodfoot's head was sick, way sicker then any thumbtacks or other pokey things. Hoodfoot's best matches - like Kyle's - feel out of control, and there were too many moments of control here. 

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Matches from Asylum Wrestling Revolution Mercyful Fate 2 3/28/21

Justin Kyle vs. Madman Fulton

ER: Kyle is a new 2021 fun discovery for me, a working man's Goldberg in the best ways. He's raw as hell and a real bruiser. He has relatability and you can see the potential in him having a successful indy career as a late to the game older guy putting in his best work ever, if things break right. Fulton, on the other hand, is a tall guy who spent a LONG time in the WWE system - as in significant parts of 6 years, on TV in tag teams with guys like Angelo Dawkins - and he has way less polish than Kyle. Fulton is more Lance Hoyt or Big Cass than Kevin Nash, but that's enough for Kyle to work with. It goes too long, honestly would have benefitted from being cut in half, but Kyle has big charisma and already almost enough shtick to carry off a long Dundee/Lawler style battle. That's what they try to do here, and Kyle is a compelling title match worker. He hits hard and never skimps on clotheslines and shoulderblocks, some cool tough guy offense like a great jackhammer, or him flying full speed into a lariat that takes him and Fulton to the floor. He takes big bumps off chokeslams and through tables and doors, and they beat each other with hard plastic school chairs. The chairshots all look painful, bouncing awkwardly off their heads and even an ankle. I really enjoyed the build to Kyle removing his back brace, feels like something not far off from being a Lawler strap takedown for him. I could see these two having a good Loser Leaves Town match with blood. 

3. Mickie Knuckles vs. Akira

JR: When I suggested we write up the Mickie/Sara Dox match, Eric came up with the Mickie as Niebla analogy, which is quite perfect. Here she seems to have an extra gear that makes me rethink the comparison. I tend to love wrestlers who can appear fast in a small amount of space. That trait really adds to the opening portions of this match, and truthfully, Mickie relies on it throughout as it makes the later transitions credible, as she establishes early that she only needs a split second to go back on offense.

Mickie has a strong performance throughout, but Akira brings a dynamic that Mickie is really able to play off. Realistically, this is a prop based death match. It is Chekhov’s gun as designed by Xzibit. Despite this, Akira manages to really find unique ways to use the props once they come into play. Small things, like Knuckles trying to pry the broken water jug off her head before the spot is complete really give the whole thing an air of violence that can sometimes feel lacking.

Mickie, of course, makes sure everything looks incredible, mostly because she wrestles as though there still isn’t evidence that brain injuries have long term effects on a person’s well-being. She takes a big screen TV to the back of the head in a sort of maximalized homage to Necro/Toby. As always, her offense is crisp. She makes sequences that have been used ad nauseam (like the boxing spot) look compelling.

This match flows so well in comparison to a lot of death matches, and I think it is in part because they never overstay their welcome with any one weapon or stay in any one location. They don’t walk and brawl so much as they find places to fight and move on, almost before the viewer really has a chance to process it. The pace is frenetic, to put it mildly, and the work seems to build and reach a fever pitch even without much escalation in the middle portion of the match.

The third act, which I would consider to be essentially everything after they come back inside, almost feels like the third fall of a big apuestas match at times in terms of pacing. Almost every single move was a believable near fall, something that could have ended a match. Roll ups and weapon shots took on equal importance, and the reversal and rollup attempts earlier tie directly to the finish itself. I don’t know if I’ll be the high man on this match, but for me, this is one of the most compelling and well laid out matches I’ve seen this year.

PAS: I am not a 21st century death match guy, but I am a Mickie guy and I thought this had more of a Black Terry brawl vibe than a geek show. Mickie is ferocious, never a moment when the gender disparity hurts the match, as she makes every punch and headbutt feel like something that should knock someone silly. She's maybe the only non-Necro wrestler ever to make a bar fight look good, all of her punches were vicious and she just unloads with a series of gross headbutts at the end to clean it all up. I thought the brawling into the street was very cool. That was a dicey looking neighborhood, and I almost expected one of them to pick up a used syringe from the gutter. I could have done without the lighttubes, the shots with the TV were so much crazier if you wanted to use glass, and these things always work better with less set up props. It also went a bit long, could have used a couple of minutes sliced at the beginning. The finishing series of mat reversals with the battle axe sounds idiotic on paper, but some how worked in execution. I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this, but Mickie is back and better than ever.

ER: Mickie Knuckles has become almost a Paula Pell wrestling character, and it's great. She's like a super dangerous aunt, showing up to an event pounding mini bottles of rum. There's the Mickie James party aunt vibe, and then there's the Mickie Knuckles party aunt vibe. But this match is a real fight, and has the same intensity over long portions as the infamous Black Terry/Wotan match. This is one of the few matches to really capture the vibe of that classic. As Phil mentioned this is an intergender match, but there's no point where that matters, no point where anything feels dumbed down because Mickie hits as hard as any wrestler going. She takes an incredible beating and gives as good as she gets, and the beating is just constant over the course of a long death match. This is the kind of fight that leaves both fighters with some lasting damage, long and short term. Mickie takes two incredibly hard shots with a 5 gallon water jug taped to a stick, a real ungiving, uncaring shot, no protection. But this isn't a geek show, there always feels like there's excellent build and artistry from Mickie and Akira. 

Akira bruises up Mickie with kicks, Mickie fires back with the most savage headbutts, they fight into the street, and the kind of spots I've seen dozens of times they are suddenly making look fresh and violent in new ways. I couldn't believe some of the punch exchanges, not just that I was seeing these painful close up shots, but that either of them stayed conscious through them. Their stand and trade looked better than any stand up I've seen this year, and we've been watching shows specifically targeting the kind of matches where that can take place. Their movement and the way the shots hit was super visceral, very shocking, and kept ramping up in violence over a very long time. There were some incredible moments, and I think my favorite was them making "sit in chairs and punch" interesting again, capped off with Akira flying into Mickie with an uppercut. Mickie takes the shot, takes a beat to figure out how bad she is hurt, then locks in a sick triangle while still seated in her chair. I honestly thought that was going to be the finish (didn't realize the match was like only halfway over) and Akira has this amazing frantic realization that this could be the finish, and only breaks it by tipping Mickie over in her chair and knocking her into a bridged pin. 

The run to the finish is long, but builds well, so even though I wish it were shorter I liked all the things they were doing and managed to continually be shocked by what they kept doing. Mickie's whole right butt cheek gets shredded by gusset plates, she takes a couple nasty spills through tubes, both have bruising and swelling and bleeding from many areas, and we get an insane battle over an actual axe, and they somehow manage to avoid any corny "axe handle" jokes and craft plausible nearfalls out of some things that should seem ridiculous. This was a real, honest to god war, featuring the best fighting I've seen all year, and incredible bout for both. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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What's Mickie Knuckles Been Up To?

Mickie Knuckles vs. Sara Dox TPW 3/6/21 

JR: I think this match shows how important contrast can be within wrestling. I’m not sure I like this match as much if Sara Dox is a good wrestler instead of someone who looks barely trained and barely in any sort of condition to perform. Sara Dox wants to come out to Sum 41 and do some kicks and whatever else and Mickie Knuckles is there solely to prove that Dox isn’t about that life. Knuckles' strikes from the first one on are truly outstanding, and she paces the match to big spots, both impromptu (the beer bottle being grabbed from a fan and thrown into Dox’s face) and deliberate (the fight over the TV and the senton with it). This match has no commentary and as such you can hear everything. It feels like a worse version of Terry/Wotan in some ways, which is nothing to be ashamed of. All of this leads to a tremendous finish with Mickie just absolutely brutalizing Dox and then cracking open a beer in the corner, looking like the biggest star on the planet that has for some reason decided to work a backyard in Tennessee in 30 degree weather during a global pandemic. This has to be the best Mickie has looked in at least a decade, right? Are there secretly great Mickie Knuckles sprints from the past few years we don’t about?

PAS: Sara Dox might be the most clearly untrained wrestler to make one of these lists, but it is great to see Mickie take her apart. This was very much Mickie taking the role of her spiritual father/boyfriend Ian Rotten stiffing and pounding a rookie. The atmosphere of this was pretty nuts, it felt like the backyard of a UT frat house at 2am when everyone is way too drunk. At one point Mickie just brains this girl with a beer bottle she found, and they do several teases around a big fire pit.  Mickie did a nice job of appropriately selling, she didn't overdo it on the stuff that didn't land, but put Dox over when she deserved it. Finish was really nasty with a choke bomb and some sick grounded elbows. She had the crowd screaming to stop the fight, and this was a bloodthirsty bunch of drunks who were calling for mercy. 

ER: To me this felt less like Mickie working as Ian, and more like Mickie doing a tribute to late era indy handheld Mr. Niebla. Mickie has undeniable charisma as she wanders around someone's backyard, her hair has more volume than ever, dancing after hitting Dox with a thick beer bottle, cracking jokes to people she passes, throws slap punches exactly like Niebla, knows her local legend status and utilizes it accordingly. If she had worked in a couple spit spots (and honestly during Covid I was 100% fully expecting some kind of spit spot in this match, as what is more deadly in 2021 than some stranger's spit?) it would have been undeniable that she was doing a Niebla tribute. Dox is maybe the most untrained wrestler I have watched in the past decade, and for all I know she was just some woman they saw at Shake Shack wearing cut off rainbow sherbet camo shorts. Ask her her favorite pop punk song from when she was 16, give her some kickpads, and ask her to throw whatever she thinks a kick might look like. Mickie's pump handle powerbombs looked really great, and her side knees to stop the match were something that should stop a match. I wonder what yard or parking lot Mickie Niebla will show up in next? 

 

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

20. Corporal Robinson/Heidi Lovelace/Mickie Knuckles v. Kongo Kong/Randi West/Jordynne Grace IWA-MS 3/9

PAS: The grimy, scuzzy, dirtbag awesomeness that IWA-MS does so well. This is a mixed tag stretcher match and looks like a street fight in the parking lot of a Kentucky Arby's. If there was a methed out white trash version of Worldstar hip hop, this would be front page. Kongo Kong is a giant dude working a Kamala gimmick and he and Robinson brawl around the arena, smashing each other. Mickie has put on some padding and works even stiffer and the other girls are right there killing each other with shots. There is some kind of angle which takes Robinson out of the match a bit, which kind of sucks, but man alive is the finish brutal, Kong 747's Heidi Lovelace through a table and just leaves a flattened pile of menthol cigarettes, track marks and tattoos. Welcome back IWA-MS may you live a thousand lives.

ER: Fun match that really only IWA-MS can do. No other promotion has the right combo of dangerously stiff and dangerously unsanitary. I'm a big fan of fatties and Kongo Kong is gigantic and has a super sloppy fat guy body, made to look even sloppier by preposterously fitting trunks. He looks completely unathletic, but then shows me by taking a crazy bump to the floor off a Corp. Robinson clothesline. Kong also has that cool Andre "pulling" strength, as he launches all the girls into towards Robinson, who had been wedged into the corner with a chair. Corp and Mickie have clearly been hitting the gym since I last saw them, and by hitting the gym I mean eating tons of fried food while selling pills at a street fair. But both of them can throw a mean forearm and nasty headbutt, so they're still alright in my book. I was impressed with all the girls here, all of them worked reckless enough that they fit right into a wild crowd brawl. Also, shout out to the moral compass in the crowd, a man yelling out to Kong "Hey why don't you try picking on a man!" Of course seeing this crowd, he was likely just using that as a clever alibi, like acting sick at work the day before you plan on calling in sick. The bodies are buried at that guy's house.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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SLL's All-Request Thursday Night

Daffney vs. Mickie Knuckles (ACW, 2007)
Requested by Jingus

I always found it a little strange that Daffney did so little for me in...certain regards in WCW but did so much for me afterwards. I guess Vince Russo really can ruin anything. Anyway, this is a good little match, and I thought Daffney gave a good performance in it. She is a fun, hammy villain who bumps, sells, and stooges well, and can throw a punch. That's a performance choice I won't really argue with. She's like the kind of wrestler some people wanted me to think Victoria was, but wasn't. Her early "smaller guy trying to lift Andre" spots were cool, and for her own part, Mickie was a pretty good Andre, standing there nonchalantly with her hands on her hips while Daffney struggles to suplex her. Then Daff punches her in the gut, and that throws her off-guard so she can whip off a northern lights suplex, which was pretty cool. When that doesn't get a pin, she tries to smother Mickie in her sizable chest, which gets treated as a sleeper. Really? Because that seems like an air choke. Daffney has her in the clinch...is she applying a sleeper with her forearms while just pressing Mickie's forehead/bridge of her nose into her cleavage to hold her in place? Mickie escapes and tosses Daffney across the ring by her tits as revenge, and we laugh and laugh and laugh and look around the room uncomfortably to make sure no one else is watching and laugh. What keeps this match from really kicking into a higher gear is that - booby toss aside - Mickie really isn't that impressive offensively here. She carries herself well as a big, tough broad, but when it's time to bring the hammer down, she doesn't really come across as the threat she's supposed to be. The announcers build her up as someone who is going to beat the shit out of Daffney when she gets the chance, but then Daffney ends up working stiffer. Also, this has kind of a weird finish with Daffney ducking a Helms-style shining wizard, but Mickie still recovers first and grabs an Oklahoma roll for the pin. Still, this was pretty solid.

Tigers Mask, PSYCHO, Kota Ibushi, & Shanao vs. Makoto Oishi, Katsuya Kishi, Shiori Asahi, & KAGETORA (Indy Summit, 12/9/2005)
Requested by Brandon-E

You know, if I watched Osaka Pro more often, I'd probably be bored stiff of Tigers Mask's baseball shtick by now, but this was actually the first time I've ever seen it, so I got a kick out of it. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the match. This is spot-fu, and not even particularly exciting spot-fu. I know interpromotional stuff has been run into the ground in Japan, but you'd still think that this is the place to crank things up, not dial them back. Shanao/Yoshitsune/a gajillion other names is the one guy who kinda comes through on that front, and even he has cringeworthy moment where he tries a springboard double backflip double back elbow on Oishi and Asahi that ends up falling way short of it's intended targets. In the words of Don West, "it missed, but boy, was it smooth". Depressing current IWGP Junior champ Ibushi probably takes the prize for shittiest guy in this thing, being the subject of one of the more heatless heat segments I've seen recently, and generally looking like an ineffectual dweeb. There was also a weird part in the stretch run where Tigers Mask did some fighting spirit no-selling, and man, if you're a comedy worker, you really need to earn the right to do that shit. I just don't get this at all.

John Cena vs. C.M. Punk (WWE, 7/17/2011)
Requested by Kostka

Seeing as how this is the most hyped and talked about wrestling match to happen in a long, long time, I'm not sure there's really much clever new analysis I can provide here. That's probably a good thing, because I'm running way behind schedule on these, and I can speed things up a bit, but there is at least one thing I should say about it. Last All-Request, I wrote about how the Savage/DDP match from Spring Stampede '97 represented a microcosm of what WCW should have been at that point, but ultimately wasn't because the company was run by morons. This match, more than anything from any of the other failed summer angles WWE has run the last few years, represents a microcosm of what WWE should be right now, but ultimately isn't because the company is run by morons. I mean, I was as psyched by the initial Nexus angle as anyone. But let's be honest, even before Danielson got pseudo-canned, even before Barrett got completely exposed as a guy not ready for prime time, we all kinda knew deep down that this crew could only accomplish so much. Even considering that, it was fumbled embarrassingly, but we knew that angle could only go so far regardless of that. But Cena/Punk shows a WWE where anything and everything is truly possible. John Cena...well, hell, I've been saying the same damn shit about Cena since 2007, and very little has changed since that time, but never has that been more apparent than it was here.

"What does Cena believe? What does he do? What does he represent? Cena's character is that of a basically good, well-meaning wrestler who would have belonged in Hogan's world, but was placed by cruel fate in Austin's world. His general good nature and drive to win endears him to children and women, while the adult males distrust him the way they distrusted every other "moral" figure from the Attitude Era. It's kind of hard to make the show reflect that kind of character without casting a good chunk of your fanbase as heels. His equivalent story is a passion play: the virtuous, hate-free Cena being crucified by a lecherous mob who would rather do away with the man challenging their warped views and continue heaping unearned praise on "heroes" like Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Kurt Angle, than reconsider their current ways. It's a good story. As Kevin Cook pointed out, it produced one of the finest matches in wrestling history. But I'm not sure you can turn it into episodic storytelling. Not sure you can build a TV series around The Passion of the Cena."

I wrote that days after Mania 23, when the future of mainstream American wrestling was actually looking pretty bright for a moment. A lot of the stuff I wrote in that post blew up in my face, but this still holds true, and I bring it up because, at long last, Cena got to play Casas in his take on the Santo/Casas '97 super classico. Obviously, it's not the first time Cena was getting booed out of the building while playing face, I'm not even sure it's the most Christ-like performance he's ever given, but it's up there. But just as - if not more - importantly, this was Cena finally getting to play Casas against a wrestler worthy of playing Santo. Punk isn't trying to bury Cena like some of his other opponents have. Punk is playing a great heel in front of a crowd that just happens to love him, and that he loves in return. The acknowledgement on commentary that "Cena is in enemy territory" says it all - the face/heel dynamic remains clear cut, only the setting has changed, and they adjust appropriately without forgetting who their characters are.

The three-way conflict between Cena's world, Punk's world, and McMahon's world is the story of WWE today, and the exploration of that could have been just the thing WWE needed to reignite the spark that's been missing for so long. And once again, they fucked it up. But we'll always have Chicago.

Bret Hart vs. Jim Neidhart (WWF, 10/29/1994)
Requested by douchebag

This was the only singles bout between these former tag partners, and I can see why. Mind you, it's not a bad match. I'm quite a bit higher on Bret than my Segunda Caida compatriots tend to be, and I think he does enough to keep this one watchable. Still, Jim Neidhart circa 1994 is only gonna give you so much. He doesn't really do anything to embarrass himself, but he's pretty much just dull as dirt here. There's some good brawling around the ring at points, and I'll maintain that Bret's stompy punches are the best of all stompy punches, but this is not one of the highlights of Bret's awesome '94 run.

Steve Veidor vs. Al Hayes (WoS, 11/8/1975)
Requested by FLIK

As a guy who grew up watching early 90's WWF, the late Lord Alfred Hayes brings back many a fond memory, but most of them open with the phrase "promotional consideration paid for by the following". Between that and his goofy as all hell color commentary appearances, I have enough to get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I think of him, but as is often the case in these situations, I can't help but be intrigued when I get the chance to see if there was more to the guy than just nostalgia. And thanks to FLIK, I now know that there is. Turning the clock back from the days of our crazy old English Lord telling us that Mr. Freeze freeze pops were as much fun to freeze as they are to eat, we go to 1975, back to his Lordship's homeland, and back to the anything but gentlemanly Judo Al Hayes.

Of course, it might be a bit of a misnomer to call England his homeland. This is Hayes' first match back in the UK after a four-year tour of duty in the States, and he's now billing himself as being from the U.S., sporting red, white, and blue wristbands, and wrestling more of the American "all-in" style, much to the consternation of all involved. Forgoing classic British technique for fisticuffs and repeatedly trapping Veidor in the ropes illegally (and trying to take advantage by swinging wildly at Veidor when he doesn't do the same), he pisses off the crowd, flusters the referee...even the always unflappable Kent Walton makes his displeasure known, even slipping in a comment about how "if he wants to wrestle all in, perhaps he should go back to the United States". I can't tell you how happy I am that jingoism is a universal wrestling trope. Veidor is a cool, Britastic matworker, but he starts losing his temper, too, and isn't afraid to take a few wild shots at Hayes to put him in his place. He takes control of the match with more sportsmanlike methods, but Hayes escapes a cravate with a hard forearm to the gut. He follows that with a nasty right hook to the face, earning him his first public warning. He tries to press the advantage, but Veidor cartwheels around a double thrust chop attempt and pastes him with a forearm. Hayes bails to the outside, and god damn does this crowd hate his guts. There's some fun stuff with him jawing with an old fat lady in the aisle, distracting him while Veidor comes out and blasts him from behind with another forearm. Hayes turns back as Veidor gets back in the ring and just stares in disbelief. Cute spot when Hayes gets back in the ring, as Veidor tries to corner him, but Hayes keeps begging off every time. Veidor seemingly gives up on it and starts to walk away, and Hayes charges in to attack while his back is turned, but Veidor quickly turns back and Hayes backpedals again. Hayes does retake control of the match, but he's really pushing his luck, using a sleeper/nerve hold at the base of the neck that looks an awful lot like a chokehold, and throwing a lot of hard clubbering forearms. Walton also starts intimating that one of Hayes' wristbands (worn in part due to injury) may be loaded, and in the penultimate round of a one-fall match where Hayes already has one public warning, he reasons that the match will either end via a draw or via Hayes getting DQ'd. Meanwhile, Hayes repeatedly tries to score a knockout with boot scrapes. Boot scrapes for nearfalls? I approve! Veidor gets saved by the bell, but comes out of his corner guns ablazing in the final round. Hayes has no answer for him, and out of desperation, chucks him over the top rope. This leads to our cooler than cool finish, as Hayes keeps attacking Veidor as he tries to re-enter the ring. The ref tries to hold him back, but with a DQ all but imminent, Hayes shoves him aside and charges Veidor once more...who slingshots over Hayes and grabs him with a sunset flip for a clean pinfall victory, "the way he likes to win". Great, great match, and an amazing look at Hayes when he was great for non-ironic reasons.

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Wrestling I've Enjoyed Recently (9 Months Ago Edition)

Whenever I talk with Phil I always feel like the most out-of-the-loop wrestling fan around. I love watching wrestling on DVD. DVDs have revolutionized tape trading. You used to buy a tape for $10-15, and now I can find people selling DVDs for $2 a pop. I can afford to keep up with every single promotion in the world at that rate. BUT, I don't love watching wrestling on a computer. I will watch if it is the ONLY way I will ever see a match (the amazing VIP lucha tag from a couple years ago, the Navarro/Terry match, etc.), but otherwise I'll just wait for the DVD.

PHIL, however, is the master of watching wrestling on a computer. He watches matches matches that have disappeared forever by the time he tells me about them the next day. "Oh man, it was fucking amazing." "Where can I see it!?" "Oh, it got taken down 7 minutes after I watched it. I doubt it'll ever be uploaded again." If we're talking music terms, then Phil is getting his hands on all the cool new 7"s from hip indie labels like Hozac or Captured Tracks or Woodsist before they go for ebay money, while I'm still listening to my Deep Blue Something cassingle on my Walkman.

So, yeah, I watch wrestling way late, on DVD, like a loser. Here are some matches I watched recently that I really enjoyed, that took place 9 months ago.

1. Bronco/Romano Garcia vs. Danny Boy/Flecha (El Toreo, 12/3/08)

Going into this I didn't know Bronco, loved Garcia but didn't realize he was still even making tape (Mr. Condor/Diabolicos, along with Apache and Pimpi, were one of the only bright spots on early 2000s Galavision AAA TV), didn't know Danny Boy, and knew Flecha was Skayde. Didn't have tons of hope for it but I love old guy lucha so figured it would be OK.

It was awesome. Romando Garcia is a total monster here. He's a little greyer up top, but he's as sneaky and bastard-y as ever. He just makes Danny Boy (who has the appearance of an older, hispanic Joey Maggs) his target the whole match and is just ruthless. Just kicking him in the balls, beating him with nasty chairshots, and in one of the greatest things I've ever seen in wrestling, Garcia grabs an empty beer bottle from a ringside vendor, breaks it on the ring post, and goes after poor Danny Boy with it!! Garcia is a marvel here, one of the ultimate heel performances I've ever witnessed.

Danny Boy bleeds like a champ and plays a really great sympathetic technico. Really interested in all their other meetings this year (two of which I have on my old fashioned Digital Video Diskz), so look forward to watching those some time in 2011.

2. Sami Callihan vs. Trik Davis (IWA-MS, 12/5/08)

These guys matched up a couple times in '08, but THIS was the singles match to watch from them. This is one of my favorite indie workrate singles I've ever seen. Trik Davis is so great here it really makes me think I should've had Trik over Sami, and Sami just got more showcase matches against cool opponents (Trik didn't get the Scorpio or Ian singles matches). Trik makes Sami's offense look better than I've ever seen it look before. Trik just leans into EVERYthing and both guys really deserve some kind of weirdo standing ovation for giving and taking such nasty beatings in front of like 35 people. The way Trik takes Sami's finisher on the floor is just totally painful, and it was on a side of the ring that had like 6 people sitting on it. Sami doesn't really know how to play to the crowd very well and project, he just kinda does his Billy Idol sneer and that's it. Trik is getting really good with his facials and plays to the crowd well and it really ties the match up. This is a great match, well worth going out of your way to see. PLUS, Fannin points out that Trik came out to the Fall Guy theme song , which may be appropriate. Trik still doesn't get much credit as a great worker, just because he looks like Big Pete Wrigley. So even though he might fall from a tall building, or roll a brand new car, he's still the unknown stunt man, that in this match made Sami Callihan such a star (I still have my Fall Guy lunch box up on my living room shelf).

3. Grits N Gravy vs. Ian Rotten/Mickie Knuckles (IWA-MS, 12/6/08)

This was part of the IWA-MS Candido Cup tag tourney. Grits N Gravy is Sami Callihan and Michael Elgin. You're all familiar with Ian, Mickie, and Callihan, and Elgin is a big doughy squishy dude squeezed uncomfortably into a singlet, who hits REALLY hard.

Ian is the standout here, and he's just awesome. He looks like my old elementary school classmate Nathan Hoffman, who would kinda do anything just to get attention (and had a baby blue Member's Only jacket with a spot on the left breast pocket so you can put I.D., so Nathan sloppily wrote "Nathan" on a piece of torn lined paper and put it in there). I usually don't get too excited for bullshit in wrestling. I have to be in the right mood for it. But Ian's bullshit? I could watch that all day. The dude is always on and people could gain a lot by watching his tag work. The dude is just always on. His apron work here is fantastic, his stuff on the mat is cool, there's a great spot on the floor where he dishes out some classic "Smothers-Fu" to Elgin, and when Sami wanders over to save Ian delivers a mule kick to the balls. Just watching the guy waddle around and somehow be awesome is such a treat.

Mickie Knuckles genuinely scares me. I like watching her wrestle, and like seeing her come in and headbutt her brain cells away, but she scares me. She really has a kind of reckless way about her -- not in a sloppy way, but in a I-don't-care-if-I-die way -- that makes her really intriguing.

Real fun tag match with four people who hit hard and get hit hard.

4. Takeshi Rikio/Naomichi Marufuji/Mohammed Yone vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano/Ricky Marvin (NOAH, 12/7/08)

I am such a sucker for NOAH six mans. Throw six guys with seemingly little connection to each other, one side acts like heels, the other acts like faces, somehow all six guys end up looking awesome. I have no idea how this happens. Marufuji consistently looked like the worst guy in everything he was in the last two years, and he was great here! And remember when Ricky Marvin was the best wrestler in the world!? Well he looked like those days were upon us NOW. All his stuff looked good and he did a rope-walk dropkick that I had to rewind a few times. Yone is really big now and he has his fro back. The only guys larger than him in the match were Rikio and Takayama, and man he packs a wallop. This had all the shit you know and love about NOAH. Dudes getting thrown into guardrails a bunch, dudes setting up spots where they run all the way across the building to clothesline a guy, stiff strikes, hott stand-offs, everybody wins. I love NOAH six mans.

5. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH, 12/7/08)

This was the first time I enjoyed a singles match with Nakajima. I've enjoyed a good amount of tags where he's in with heavyweights that just beat him up and all he has to do is get beaten up and throw some big kicks. But this was a good Nakajima singles match. Misawa is fat, grumpy, and in no mood to get kicked by some punk. Misawa's elbows are truly insane. They're like an Anderson Silva back-peddling jab: He doesn't look like he's throwing them that hard, but when they connect, they just might dislocate your jaw. Misawa hits all sorts of elbow combos and Nakajima reddens his chest, and the match ends when it should end.

6. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA/Taiji Ishimori (NOAH, 12/7/08)

There are gonna be a hundred of these matches this year that I can't stand, filled with wasted big moves and dudes popping up doing the jacking two dudes off fighting spirit fist pumps. But I dug this one. KENTA plays a great face-in-peril and Kanemaru/Suzuki are really good at cutting off the ring. The first 10-15 are classic southern tag, and by the time we get to the big spots they're all really fun and well strung together, making good use of saves to avoid too many pointless kickouts. This was real fun and I seriously doubt I'm going to enjoy a juniors tag this year as much as this one...but like a sucker I'll still watch them.

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XCW Midwest Rollin Hard Memorial Show 2/3/09

Suicide Kid v. Drake Younger v. American Kickboxer

PAS: Fine little five minute three way, a couple of awkward spots, but Kid and Kickboxer looked pretty good for a pair of guys who don’t really wrestle regularly. Kickboxer had an especially pretty flipping asai.

TKG: About two years ago Suicide Kid was doing commentary for a couple IWA-MS matches and mentioned that he was thinking about a come back no longer as Suicide Kid but now as a more seasoned Suicide Man. He comes out to a big pop and has nice baby charisma but he is no longer a baby, he is a man and eats the pin from the new generation in Drake Younger.

J Boy Allister Fear, Guido Andretti v Ian Rotten, Chris Champion, Mickie Knuckles

TKG: About a year ago Chris Champion had a stroke. Chris Champion is currently working some sort of almost AAA style middle aged Marilyn Manson gimmick. He comes out wearing white face paint and a fascist military uniform with an iron cross insignia, waving the old Wildside Skull and Crossbones flag while carrying a Misfits lunchbox. Inside the Misfits lunchbox are chemicals which he mixes up to blow fireballs. Before Champion had his stroke the joke I used to tell was that for a drugged up tatted charismatic guy with martial arts offense and goth gimmick, Vampiro was a poor man’s Chris Champion. Post stroke for a charismatic tatted up ex druggie with martial arts offense and a AAA type gimmick Chris Champion essentially is Vampiro. This was a fun lil match. I haven’t seen Fear in ages, Ardetti is a XCW regular and I’ve never seen J Boy before but he really did the bulk of stuff for his team. Post match Ian with heartfelt speech about Roland.

PAS: This was a showcase for the faces, and they all looked great. Ian has an awesome Buddy Landell elbow drop here, and Mickie throws some nasty headbutts. I enjoyed all of the heels bumping and talking shit. Ian is really great at emotional speechmaking.

Sexy Shawn Cook v “Mean” Mitch Page

TKG: Mean Mitch Page is a guy who I think is retired but doesn’t look the least bit rusty in the last two matches I’ve seen with him (Mean and Hard v Vulgar Display of Power and this one). His stuff looks really great and he eats Cook’s stuff really well with his legs going al wobbly in neat ways. Mitch Ryder should try to get him out of retirement and run Mitch Page v Freezer Thompson series. Page/Thompson v Hawk/Cook would also rule. Page and a young babyface partner. I want Mean Mitch Page as a regular.

PAS: This was pretty short but Page did look good. His strengths are clearly the kind of brawls which you wouldn’t do on a tribute show. I was pleasantly surprised how good he was in this kind of undercard face v. heel match.

Mitch Ryder v Tracy Smothers

PAS: This is a show with no great match, but where everything was totally satisfying. Tracey Smothers does his classic shtick, and does it well. Ryder looks good, has the crowd behind him and works well around Tracey being Tracey. I imagine they have a great match in them, this wasn’t it but it was a blast

TKG: Smothers comes out and announces that he loves Roland but hates these fans and we’re off. Smothers with a bunch of nasty combinations in the corner and a match that just puts a smile on your face.

Flash Flanagan v. Chris Michaels

PAS: This was for the title and was worked like a title match. Both guys have been in very good matches on previous XCW shows, but always as the solid hand against a guy with some flash. This was technically good, but a little dry. Flanagan really looked facially like Curt Henning which isn't something I noticed before. Good match with a fun finish, but not a top ten XCW match

TKG: Flanagan eats everything in this really really well. This starts really great and is a fine showcase match. The superplex into roll up finish was executed better than usual.

Bull Pain v. Todd Morton

PAS: These are my two favorite guys in this promotion, and two of the best wrestlers in the world. I imagine that this feud will produce one of my top matches of 2009, and I am going to want to see them all. This wasn't that kind of match, but man was it a total blast. Morton comes out with Sexy Shawn Cook so Bull calls to the back and brings out Little Roland and Crackbaby to even the score. Whole match was Morton and Cook with really nasty cheap shots leading to a Crackbaby low blow and a little Roland shot with the Kill Whitey sign for the pin. Really great moment and so much more heartfelt and classy then your WWE tribute show shtick.

TKG: This was being reffed by Mitch Page with Roland’s kids as Bull’s seconds, and so I was expecting more fun than “classics”. Still the wrestling was really good with lots of neat uses for Brother Pain. Bull is shockingly effective face. But this was a match about the kids. That’s what the whole show was about. On some level I’m used to wrestling memorial/tribute shows as being classless and really exploitative. This show wasn’t that. It really felt like a bunch of guys getting together to entertain two kids whose dad had just passed. Those kids coming out for the main event to take out Todd Morton was really sweet. There was something ridiculously gentle and sweet about the whole show.

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